[Asia Round-up] East Asia trade pact to help ease tensions
Editor’s note: Followings are summaries of editorials from major Asian media on current issues. East Asia trade pact to help ease tensions [China, China Daily, 19-06-2013] Free trade talks involving China, Japan and South Korea are predicted to ease political tensions and meet challenges of other FTAs. Shin Bong-kil, secretary-general of the Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat […]
Floods wreaks havoc in western Nepal and northern India
Kathmandu- Incessant monsoon rains have wreaked havoc in western Nepal. Dozens of people were killed in the floods and mudslides triggered by the heavy rain. About 60 houses, including 11 government offices and a hospital of Darchula district headquarters were swept away by the swollen Mahakali river that flows down from the Nepal-India border in […]
N. Korea: player in the Gwangju Democratic Uprising?
Korean history as seen in South Korea is deeply contentious. It is not incidental that many school textbooks prefer to stop their narrative around 1960, quietly assuming that what happened after is too controversial for anything resembling an impartial judgment to emerge. Most of the prominent historical events and figures of the post-1945 period are […]
Naurauz : Theatre for all Seasons
It had been a week of happiness for those who fall in love with theatre. The city is Kazan, the location is G. Kamal Tatar National Academic Theatre, and the event is the 11th edition of the International Theatre Festival of Turkic Peoples; Naurauz, with performances from 3 – 7 June, 2013. Some aspects are […]
The ‘third Korea’ Yanbian in decline
As everybody knows, there are two Koreas – North and South. There is also, however, another area that is often described as the ‘third Korea’ – the Yanbian Korean autonomous prefecture, located in northeast China, along the border with North Korea. Large Korean-speaking populations can be found in many countries, but in nearly all cases […]
[Asia Round-up] China’s princelings in high posts
Editor’s note: Followings are summaries of editorials from major Asian media on current issues. China’s princelings in high posts [Singapore, The Straits Times, 29-05-2013] News of newly retired Chinese president Hu Jintao’s son entering into politics is only the beginning of many princelings to come. Recently, Deng Xiaoping’s 28-year-old grandson, Deng Zhuodi, has emerged as […]
Why constitutional reforms required for Philippines
All in the Family If PNoy (President Noynoy meaning current Philippine President Benigno Aquino III) is really sincere in his avowed promise to clean and improve government service, he should not oppose the move to change the constitution anymore. Indeed by this time, most Filipinos are already convinced and can clearly see that the government […]
[Asia Round-up] Never-ending rape of Malaysia’s Cameron Highlands
Editor’s note: Followings are summaries of editorials from major Asian media on current issues. The never-ending rape of the Camerons [Malaysia, The Star, 22-05-2013] Once a destination to getaway crowds, the Cameron Highlands, one of the most prominent hill resorts in Malaysia, is now swamped by tourist crowds and being threatened by reckless development around […]
Learning Korean can’t be done ‘pali pali’
Learning Korean is not pali pali (빨리 빨리) One of the first things I learned upon arrival to Korea was the culture of doing things quickly (빨리 빨리 문화). In fact, this country achieved a developed economy within about 50 years. If one looks at history, Germany and Japan took about 150 years to reach […]
Tehran celebrates publishing of Ashraf Aboul-Yazid’s poems in Persian
Egyptian poet and novelist Ashraf Aboul-Yazid celebrated the publishing of his poems in Persian during Tehran International Book Fair. The ceremony started by reciting poems in Arabic, by the poet, and their equivalent in Persian, by the translator professor Nasrin Shakibi Mumtaz. The poet signed copies of his poems to many authors, publishers and readers […]